A grassroots lobbying effort launched earlier this month by the National Community Pharmacists Association is on track to establish a 100,000-member patient coalition by the end of the year, a spokesperson said, The Politico reports. So far, more than 1,000 community pharmacists and 5,000 customers across the U.S. are participating in the Fight4Rx campaign.

The $250,000 campaign will work to prevent cuts in pharmacy reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid; allow small pharmacies to unite and negotiate drug prices directly with the federal government; and prevent mandates that would require people enrolled in government-sponsored health coverage programs to use mail-order pharmacies. Customers have been enrolled by pharmacists behind the counter or through fliers put in prescription bags. The NCPA also plans to have television advertisements featuring a local pharmacy in each market and will place ads on various consumer health information Web sites and a dedicated Web site, Fight4Rx, to increase membership further.

NCPA spokesperson Lisa Camooso Miller said that because all participants opt in to the campaign, they are more likely to contact members of Congress and other lawmakers when they are asked. She said, "In key districts, we will make sure we have a critical mass of patients so that these members of Congress know how the folks who care about health care in their districts feel about the health care debate in Washington" (Frates, The Politico, 2/17).

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